


Food Glorious Food

by astralpenguin



Category: Heartstopper (Webcomic), Solitaire - Alice Oseman
Genre: Alternate Universe - Royalty, M/M, Prince Nick, Royal Guard Charlie, food testing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-24
Updated: 2017-12-24
Packaged: 2019-02-19 00:19:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,460
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13111707
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/astralpenguin/pseuds/astralpenguin
Summary: “Would you rather your Prince be poisoned?”Charlie didn’t think there was anyone who could possibly want the Prince dead. He wasn’t about to argue, though. That would be a very bad idea. Instead, he picked up the smallest piece of bread he could see and took a bite.





	Food Glorious Food

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vaselineisalie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaselineisalie/gifts).



> inspired by [this tumblr post](http://the-modern-typewriter.tumblr.com/post/167176541283/i-think-you-need-to-taste-this-for-me-the)
> 
> happy christmas elanor !!

The first time it happened, Charlie was confused, to say the least.

The Prince, Nicholas, usually took his meals alone, every evening at 6. That was when Charlie’s shift was. So every day, Charlie would stand guard by the door as the Prince ate his way through courses and courses of the finest food in the land.

One evening, once the servers had left the room, the Prince did not start eating. He did nothing for a few minutes. Charlie was just starting to wonder whether he should be concerned when the Prince turned to him and said, “You there, guard, what’s your name?”

Stunned, for no member of the Royal household had ever spoken to him before, Charlie stuttered out a response.

“Charles Spring,” the Prince repeated to himself. He gave a slight nod, then gestured to the empty seat beside him. “Come, sit.”

“My Lord, I couldn’t possibly -”

The Prince laughed, interrupting him. “I’m asking you to sit with me.”

Hesitantly, as if he could be told to stop at any moment, Charlie did so. The chair was gilded, and the cushion was quite possibly the most comfortable thing that he’d ever sat on. As he tried, and most likely failed, to stop this showing on his face, the Prince slid the plate containing his starter over to him. It was a platter of olives and cured meats, along with some freshly baked bread that Charlie could smell, as if it had just come out of the oven.

“Eat,” said the Prince.

Charlie blinked. “Um...”

“Would you rather your Prince be poisoned?”

Poisoned?! Admittedly, Charlie didn’t pay as much attention to politics as he should, especially since his job depended on it. But he didn’t think there was anyone who could possibly want the Prince dead. He didn’t think there were any issues of that sort. He wasn’t about to argue, though. That would be a very bad idea. Instead, he picked up the smallest piece of bread he could see and took a bite.

To say that it was the best bread he had ever eaten simply wouldn’t do it justice, however, that was the truth. For a moment, Charlie allowed his eyes to close as he chewed. Then he caught himself, swallowed quickly, and said, “I - er - I think it’s fine.”

The Prince smiled, and said, “Make sure you try some of everything. You know, just in case.”

Before too long, Charlie and the Prince had finished the Prince’s dinner for the day. Charlie had even had his own glass of wine poured for him. He’d had some of every item of food and drink. It was all delicious, and none of it was poisoned.

The next day, the Prince again invited Charlie to sit with him and eat. And the next day, and the next. Charlie began to look forward to these shifts. At first, he told himself that it was because the food was so good. And that was certainly a factor, but he soon had to admit to himself that that wasn’t the only one.

One day, Charlie received a notice that his shifts around the castle had been changed. His heart dropped at the thought that he wouldn’t get to spend time with the Prince anymore. Then, he read through his new duties. At first he couldn’t believe it, and had to read it two more times before it started to sink in. He was to become the Prince’s personal guard, and would be spending much more time around him. Not just the duration of one meal a day, but the entire day.

Over the next few months, Charlie and the Prince began to talk to each other even more.

Charlie told him about his older sister, Victoria, and his younger brother, Oliver. He told the Prince about how his parents expected him to take care of them both, and how much that annoyed Victoria.

The Prince told him about everyone’s expectations for him. “I’m going to be King one day, so everyone expects me to be completely up myself. And people keep asking when I’m going to fight in a battle like my father did. Literally nothing sounds less appealing than spending a year marching to a random field to be surrounded by people being hacked to death.”

One day, the Prince was laughing about something that had been said, when he asked if he could call Charlie ‘Charlie’. Before then, Charlie had always been ‘Charles’ if he was addressed by name at all.

If you were to ask Charlie afterwards, he wouldn’t have been able to tell you why he responded in the way he did. A simple ‘yes’ would have been enough, and was expected. And yet, for some unfathomable reason, Charlie said to the Crown Prince, “Sure, so long as I can call you Nick.”

Not only did he get away with it, but this request seemed to make the Prince extremely happy. He explained that nobody else called him Nick, not even his own parents, and he’d be delighted to have Charlie call him that.

This arrangement continued for many more months. Nick and Charlie grew closer and closer. Other members of Court were noticing. The other guards were noticing.

It was Charlie’s sister who made him get a clue, though.

“So you mean to tell me,” she said, during one of his rare trips home, “that the Prince had you eat half of his meals for weeks, made you his personal guard, spends all his free time hanging out with you, and lets you call him by a nickname that anybody else would be arrested for trying?”

“...He said he was worried about poison...”

“Even you know how weak that excuse sounds.”

When Charlie reentered court, he was determined to find out if Victoria was right. He didn’t allow himself to hope, but still wanted to know if her suspicions were true.

When he entered Nick’s quarters, the Prince turned to him and smiled brightly. “How was the family?”

“They’re good, thanks. Ollie’s gotten even taller!”

“How tall do you think he’ll be when he’s grown up?”

“Taller than me probably.”

“Well that’s not exactly hard,” laughed Nick as he ran his hand through Charlie’s hair.

Charlie laughed along with him, before deciding that if he was going to ask, he might as well get it out of the way. “So I was talking to my sister, and she said something, and it got me thinking...” He trailed off, not sure what to say next. He looked at Nick’s face and saw the smile starting to drop. He quickly began to speak again. “That day when you first asked me to test your food, were you really worried about poison?”

Charlie’s eyes widened in surprise as he saw Nick looking almost scared. Nick didn’t catch Charlie’s eyes as he said, “No, I wasn’t.”

“Then what was it?” asked Charlie. “You don’t need to worry, I won’t be mad. I just want to know.”

Nick sat down in a nearby chair. “I just wanted a chance to talk with you, and to spend some time with you. I couldn’t think of another way that would seem natural.”

“Why?”

Nick looked up in confusion. “Huh?”

“Why would you want to spend time with me? I’m just a guard, I’m nothing special, and - “

“Don’t say that!” Nick stood back up and stared directly into Charlie’s eyes. “Don’t say that you’re ‘nothing special’ because that isn’t true. You aren’t ‘just a guard’. You’re kind, and funny, and you care about people and animals, and you appreciate good food, and you can keep a secret, and why wouldn’t I want to spend time with you?”

“Even if that’s true, you can’t have known all that at first. We’d never spoken to each other. So why?”

Nick broke eye contact again and mumbled something.

“What was that?” asked Charlie, “I couldn’t hear you.”

Nick spoke louder. “I thought you were really cute is all.”

Charlie couldn’t help but smile a little. He allowed the hope he’d suppressed to bloom. “Oh?” he said. “And what about now?”

Nick didn’t look up, so couldn’t see Charlie’s smile when he said, “I still think you’re cute.”

Charlie took a step forwards. “Well, that’s good,” he said as he gently took Nick’s hands into his own. Nick jumped slightly in surprise at the touch, and finally saw the smile on Charlie’s face. “It’s a good thing you still think I’m cute, because I think that you’re cute, too.”

They were both silent for a moment, before Nick said, “You’ve gotten a lot bolder since we first spoke.”

“You’ve been a bad influence on me.”

Nick laughed, and leaned down to kiss him for the first time.

**Author's Note:**

> i'm on [tumblr](http://astralpenguin.tumblr.com/) : D


End file.
